Jonathan Ross is an 'icon of greed' says DJ Paul Gambaccini

Veteran BBC radio broadcaster Paul Gambaccini has hit out Jonathan Ross's pay deal claiming it has been a 'disaster' for the corporation.

The 59-year-old DJ said the controversial £6million a year comedian was now seen as 'an icon of greed' by many people in the UK.

Mr Gambaccini said that Ross's three-year £18million deal was the main reason why the government gave the BBC a lower than expected licence fee deal.

'An icon of greed': Radio DJ Paul Gambaccini (left) has hit out at Jonathan Ross's £6m wage - calling it a disaster for the BBC

He also claimed the economic crisis and the Andrew Sachs scandal had turned the row over his pay from 'whimsy' to 'personal insult' to a lot of people.

The 'Professor of Pop' also wondered why Russell Brand and Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas had to quit over the Sachs scandal but Ross did not.

He also claimed an interview by fellow BBC presenter George Lamb with singer Ray Davies had been the 'worst interview in the history of broadcasting'.

In a forthright attack on the corporation he also criticised how bosses kept 'airlifting' TV stars on to radio shows when did not have the training or experience.

He also repeated earlier claims that Brand was a timebomb waiting to explode saying he 'knew it would end in tears'.

Ross and Brand sparked 42,000 complaints after lewd calls were make to the answerphone of 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor Sachs. During the calls broadcast in October, Brand boasted he had slept with Sachs's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23.

A series of obscenities then followed. The pair even joked Mr Sachs might hang himself as a result of their calls.

Speaking in an newspaper interview Gambaccini said of the Ross situation: 'It may sound strange that I say this because you might think the more money the merrier, but I don't think any man, no matter how strongly rooted he is in family and friends, wants to be seen as the icon of greed in this country.'

He added that Ross's contact was 'probably the greatest factor of several factors' in the BBC's below inflation licence fee settlement.

Mr Gambaccini also appeared to criticise the way the £18million presenter had kept his job while others were not so lucky.

He told the Media Guardian: 'In a sense it was a brutal comment to dispense with Russell and suspend Jonathan.

'It's like saying Jonathan is important to us and Russell isn't, Jonathan is more important to us than Lesley. I mean effectively that's what they said.

'I realise that the BBC is an executive hierarchy where all credit and the blame goes to the producers rather than the performers but nonetheless, to make Lesley go and have Jonathan stay for something Jonathan said shows a very interesting set of priorities.'

Speaking off his earlier comments about Brand, he added: 'The only reason I felt dragged into it was because I'm on late Saturday afternoon and Russell was on mid-evening which meant we were part of the same technician shift. And so every week I would hear the autopsy on the previous week's corpse.

'That's why I said I knew it would end in tears because it had to end in tears. It wasn't really a question of which particular broadcast would be the one, there would be one.'

He criticised 6Music presenter George Lamb over his interview with Kinks legend Ray Davies, which was cut short because of bizarre questions.

Mr Gambucci said: 'George is another example of that airlift of television presenters. He needed training before he went on... I said to people "Google George Lamb and Ray Davies but make sure you tie yourself down before you do so, because you will strike the next person you meet because you will be so angry." '

He also appeared to hit out at agent John Noel, who looks after Lamb as well as Dermot O'Leary and Russell for the amount of influence he has at BBC radio.

The DJ said: 'I congratulate him on his performance... but his merchandise has been pretty shoddy in terms of radio, and that's because nobody seems to realise that radio requires its own skills set.'